The CMU Portugal Program hosted on June 4th an Info Session to guide potential candidates to apply to the Open Calls for Mobility Programs “Visiting Students” and “Visiting Faculty & Researchers”. To date, the CMU Portugal Program has supported 69 Visiting Students and 96 Faculty and Researchers visits to Carnegie Mellon University.
The Info Session, held via Zoom, gathered 28 participants, including students, faculty, and researchers who were interested in learning about the key steps for a successful application and how to get the opportunity to spend a research period at CMU until the end of 2025.
The session was moderated by the Program’s Communications and Events Officer, Mariana Carmo, who welcomed the participants.
João Fumega, CMU Portugal’s Education Officer, gave an overview of both CMU Portugal Mobility initiatives, focusing on the application process and main requirements. Megan Berty, CMU Portugal Associate Director at CMU, spoke next on the CMU requirements and the support available by the Coordination office in Pittsburgh.
Next, Gabriel Santos, MSc graduate in Biomedical Engineeringat Universidade de Coimbra, shared his experience as Visiting Student in 2024. Gabriel was hosted by Professor Carmel Majidi in the Mechanical Engineering Department. His research focuses on Tunable Stiffness Neural Probes, working at the Soft and Printed Microelectronics Laboratoryof the Institute of Systems and Robotics – Coimbra, which has been working closely with Professor Carmel Majidi.
Anna Bernard, assistant professor of Economics and researcher at Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, was a Visiting Faculty and Researcher in 2024, hosted at the Heinz College by Professor Michael D. Smith. Her research interests lie at the intersection of cultural and digital economics, with a focus on the music industry and crowdfunding for creative projects using experimental and online data. Anna had heard positive feedback from former participants of the Visiting program, which convinced her to apply.
Gabriel and Anna shared positive feedback about their time at CMU. They talked about the straightforward application processes to the Visiting Programs, advising potential applicants to take care of logistics, especially applying for a visa and housing, as early as possible. They also enjoyed immersing themselves in Pittsburgh’s culture, namely the sports scene. Finally, they highlighted the value of attending the numerous seminars, using the university’s research labs and resources, and building connections with peers and professors.
Finally, to wrap up the session, there was a 15-minute Q&A, which allowed the participants to ask questions to the panelists.
For further questions about all our initiatives, please visit our website, or contact us at apply@cmuportugal.org.
The CMU Portugal online Info Session “How to apply to a CMU Portugal Affiliated Ph.D. Program Scholarship”, was held on May 22nd via Zoom, gathering 61 potential candidates willing to know more about the 2025 available scholarships.
Under this call, 12 Scholarships are currently available for the 2025/2026 academic year in selected cutting-edge areas of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), related to the scope of the CMU Portugal Program. The selected candidates will be hosted at a Portuguese University and benefit from a research period of up to 12 months at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The Info Session was moderated by Mariana Carmo, CMU Portugal’s Communications and Events Officer, who introduced CMU Portugal National Co-Director João Magalhães, to welcome the participants and offer a first insight of the Program.
João Fumega, CMU Portugal’s Education Officer, provided an overview of the program., presenting the application guidelines and main requirements.
Megan Berty, CMU Portugal’s Associate Director at CMU, spoke next on the research period at CMU, and the support available by the coordination office in Pittsburgh.
The Session continued with the participation of Diogo Silva, an Affiliated Ph.D. student in the area of Language Technologies at NOVA FCT and researcher at NOVA LINCS, who not only spoke on his research, but also shared his experience as a student under the program, from the application process to his research period at CMU.
Diogo offered valuable advice on how selected candidates can prepare to go to Pittsburgh, namely the visa process and the housing. He highlighted as one of the main benefits of the research period in Pittsburgh his networking experience both with peers and faculty, and being able to use the university’s facilities and resources, to “make the best of this experience”.
Finally, to close the session, a 20-minute Q&A allowed all participants to clarify their doubts with the panelists.
Under the CMU Portugal Patient Innovation Accelerator,six teams that participated in thePatient Innovation (PI) Bootcamp traveled to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh from April 7th to 11th for a week-long residency program designed to prepare the participating teams to enter the U.S. market.
The teams were hosted by Project Olympus, a CMU Incubator Program that provides resources and mentorship to help members of the CMU community to turn cutting-edge research into startups; and AlphaLab Health, Pittsburgh’s leading life sciences accelerator, which has been supporting startups since 2008. The week featured expert-led workshops, tailored mentorship from Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIRs), and visits to key institutions such as Allegheny Health Network (AHN) and UPMC Enterprises.
The week was structured around morning sessions led by Project Olympus on various entrepreneurial topics. In the afternoons, the teams were given flex-time for one-on-one meetings with experts and Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIRs).
Here is a closer look at how the week went.
Day one began with a welcome message from Meredith Meyer Grelli, Director of Project Olympus, Melanie Simko, Program Manager at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, and Megan Berty, Associate Director of CMU Portugal at CMU. The morning continued with a presentation from guest speaker Jerome Granato, MD, experienced physician executive and healthcare consultant, on selling into the healthcare market.
After the panel was a presentation by Mara McFadden, CEO of Endolumik, on Leadership: know yourself and your team.
Day two kicked off with a presentation on Creating Value and Reducing Investor Risk. The key points of the presentation were: defining inflection points, understanding risk and setting expectations. The speakers included: Matt Harbaugh, Venture Capitalist at Mountain State Capital, Nick Pachuda, Innovation Leader & Investor, Kevin Rocco, Founder at Biorez, and Noveate Capital Partners which consists of a team of MedTech, BioPharma and Venture Capital experts who identify, support, and accelerate tomorrow’s life science breakthroughs.
Next was a panel of three guest entrepreneurs in the fields of Software (Saisri Akondi, Biomedical Innovator), Medical Device (Craig Markovitz, Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University), & Therapeutic Medicine (Paulo Fontes, Co-founder & Chief Medical Officer, LyGenesis, Co-founder & Medical/Strategic Advisor, ICaPath). This panel focused on the Realities of Product Development and Validation and was moderated by Max Fedor, lead EIR and Director Portfolio Commercialization at LifeX.
Following the panel was a presentation by guest speaker Alethea WielandClinical Research Strategieson Validation and Regulatory Compliance. Day 2 concluded with a visit to the Suburban General Incubation Facility, a repurposed hospital facility.
Day three began with a workshop with Meredith Meyer Grelli on Developing a Pitch, followed by a panel, moderated by Meyer Grelli, on Communicating with Investors. Panel members included: Rezzan Kose– 412 Venture Fund, Sree Gadde– BlueTree Ventures, Gretchen Jezerc – Profit Mind, Jeanne Iasella – Alpha Lab Health.
The final session on day three was a presentation by speaker,Krista Bragg, CEO, KB Kinetics LLC, on Health Systems Perspectives.
Day four’s morning began with a session on Intellectual Property: Building offensive and defensive patents & protecting software by speakers Pierre Queiroz de Oliveira, IP Attorney at DLA Piper and Jake Greenberg, IP Attorney with CMU’s Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation.
Next was a session on Competitive Strategies in Healthcare Business by Alissa Meade, Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Glimmer Health.
Lunch on day four provided an exciting opportunity for the Patient Innovation Entrepreneurs to meet and network with the CMU Portugal Community at CMU during a Grad Student Appreciation Luncheon.
Attendees included Dual Degree and Affiliated Ph.D. students spanning many CMU departments including: Computer Science, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Engineering & Public Policy, Human-Computer Interaction, and Language Technologies. The students also span many Portuguese Universities including: Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, NOVA School of Science and Technology, University of Aveiro, Instituto Superior Técnico, Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra, Faculty of Engineering – University of Porto, and University of Lisbon.
The day concluded with a Pitch Workshop in which the entrepreneurs presented a 15-minute pitch of their company or product. Afterwards was a short Q&A and constructive feedback from EIR’s, mentors, and others.
The final day provided an opportunity for the entrepreneurs to meet with Project Olympus and the CMU Portugal Program to discuss how the week went and provide feedback. The week was wrapped up with a Happy Hour at The Oaklander Hotel.
Though the week in Pittsburgh has concluded, the work is not over. The program will conclude with an in-person workshop in Portugal in June, where participants will showcase their progress and finalize their go-to-market strategies. By the end of the Patient Innovation Accelerator Program, teams are expected to have developed solid commercialization plans tailored to both US and EU markets.
For more information about the Accelerator Program, please click here.
André Duarte, a Dual Degree Ph.D. student in Language Technologies at Instituto Superior Técnico / INESC-ID and Carnegie Mellon University, was the invited speaker at the latest Priberam Lab Machine Learning Lunch Seminar held on March 11th. This seminar is part of a series of biweekly informal meetings hosted at Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon.
Credits: Priberam
At the event, André talked about DE-COP, a method designed to detect whether copyrighted text has been included in a language model’s training data. André shared that “by leveraging multiple-choice questions that contrast verbatim text with its paraphrases, DE-COP effectively exposes memorization, significantly outperforming prior methods”.
The CMU Portugal student also talked about his extended investigation to vision-language models (VLM) with DIS-CO, a new approach for identifying copyrighted visual content in training data. By “using our MovieTection benchmark, built from 14,000 frames across various films, we find that many popular VLMs display clear signs of memorization, raising broader concerns about AI training practices and copyright compliance” explains André.
“I was really happy to receive this invitation. As a Ph.D. student, I see these opportunities to share our work as truly valuable. So, I can only say thanks for being the one chosen this time.” shared André, who was quite impressed with the turnout of approximately 60 attendees.
André Duarte’s research focuses on the security and privacy of Generative AI models, with a particular emphasis on Membership Inference Attacks. He is supervised by Arlindo Oliveira, at Instituto Superior Técnico and INESC-ID, and Lei Li, at the Language Technologies Institute of Carnegie Mellon University
In November 2024, André Duarte won the SPARK award for best student article at Center for Responsible AI Forum 2024, for his article “DE-COP: Detecting Copyrighted Content in Language Models Training Data”, selected among 44 academic submitted projects.
On February 12th, members of the CMU Portugal Alumni Community gathered in Lisbon for a networking event featuring Tepper School of Business Dean Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou and Mimi Fairman, Executive Director of International Advancement at CMU.
The event allowed former CMU Portugal students to reconnect and engage with other fellow alumni while catching up on the latest from Carnegie Mellon University.
The evening fostered great conversations strengthened connections while contributing to expand the CMU Portugal community’s global network.
During her visit to Lisbon, Mimi Fairman met with the CMU Portugal Coordination Office team to discuss CMU Portugal’s education initiatives and alumni community. The meeting served as an opportunity to highlight the partnership’s ongoing work and explore avenues for future collaboration. Discussions focused on strengthening engagement and exploring opportunities for deeper connections within the global CMU alumni network.
The CMU Portugal program hosted a lunch on the Carnegie Mellon campus in Pittsburgh on February 11th, 2025, bringing together students currently studying in Pittsburgh.
At CMU, the program’s coordination team regularly creates networking opportunities for students from different Ph.D. programs – who may not typically interact in classes – to connect, build relationships, and expand their professional networks beyond the classroom.
Attending students included Dual Degree Ph.D., Affiliated Ph.Ds. students from many CMU departments including Computer Science (CS), Software and Societal Systems (S3D), Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Human Computer Interaction (HCII), Language Technologies Institute (LTI), and Engineering and Public Policy (EPP).
This gathering gave everyone an opportunity to catch-up while enjoying a meal together, sharing their experiences at CMU in Pittsburgh so far.
On January 14th, a small piece of CMU Portugal’s DNA was sent into space. The “PROMETHEUS-1” satellite, Portugal’s first PocketQube developed at Universidade do Minho as part of the CMU Portugal project Prometheus, hitched a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter-12 mission, launched from California, USA.
Credits: Universidade do Minho
The launch was followed live at the University of Minho in an event attended by the Rector of Universidade do Minho, Rui Vieira de Castro; the dean of the School of Engineering of the University of Minho (EEUM), Pedro Arezes; and João Magalhães, CMU Portugal National co-director. The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, participated in the session remotely.
Alexandre Ferreira da Silva, the Prometheus project’s Principal Investigator in Portugal and a researcher at EEUM, provided an in-depth overview of the satellite. The PROMETHEUS-1 is a Rubik’s Cube-sized satellite, weighing just 250 grams and measuring 5 centimeters on each side. Built at Universidade do Minho, it was developed in collaboration with Instituto Superior Técnico and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) as part of CMU Portugal’s Exploratory Research Project (ERP) titled “PROMETHEUS – PocketQube Framework Designed for Research and Educational Access to Space.” As a CMU Portugal exploratory research project, Prometheus was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) and developed in collaboration between Portuguese researchers and Carnegie Mellon University, led in Portugal by Alexandre Ferreira da Silva and Zachary Manchester at CMU.
João Magalhães (CMU Portugal); Alexandre Ferreira da Silva (Uminho); Tom Walkinshaw (Alba Orbital); and Pedro Andrade (Universidade do Minho and CMU Portugal Visiting Student).
“Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the privilege of leading this incredible project, which has been an amazing journey of learning and growth. None of this would have been possible without the support and collaboration of an outstanding team of colleagues – Pedro Andrade, Zachary Manchester and his team, Rodrigo Ventura, and Rui M. Rocha – to whom I’m deeply grateful”, shared Alexandre Silva.
The result was the first-ever development in Portugal of a satellite designed for both educational and scientific purposes. Equipped with battery management and orientation systems, microcontrollers, and a camera to capture images, the satellite will enable the collection of data such as its orientation and potential software errors. Control of the satellite will be managed by team members from Instituto Superior Técnico . Although it is expected to remain in orbit for up to seven years, its functional lifespan is estimated to be approximately two years, in the best scenario. Tom Walkinshaw, CEO and founder of the British satellite builder Alba Orbital, the world’s first PocketQube factory, that integrated “Prometheus-1” in the PocketQube Deployer (‘AlbaPod’), in 2024, to be prepared for launch, was also in attendance.
João Magalhães, CMU Portugal’s National co-director, adds that “this project exemplifies the success of one of the pillars of the CMU Portugal Program: building bridges between Portuguese universities and Carnegie Mellon University. Prometheus is one of the 94 projects funded under the scope of our Program, benefiting directly from collaboration between Portuguese researchers and Carnegie Mellon University in developing a satellite with a purpose distinct from any other previously developed in Portugal”.
Credits: Universidade do Minho
The Falcon Rocket 9 lifted off around 7:10 pm (GMT), and until the satellite was released into space (‘deployment’), Universidade do Minho signed a protocol with the Portuguese Air Force, followed by the intervention of Hugo Costa, member of the executive board of the Portuguese Space Agency, and Henrique Candeias, chief engineer of the national satellite integrator N3O.
The video of the launch ceremony is available here.
On December 5th, the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program brought together its Affiliated and Dual Degree Ph.D. students in parallel events taking place in Lisbon and Pittsburgh.
In Lisbon, the event gathered 33 Dual and Affiliated students from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Universidade de Aveiro, Universidade de Coimbra, Universidade de Lisboa, Universidade do Minho, and Universidade do Porto. With Ph.D. candidates coming from universities across the country, this event provided an opportunity for everyone to connect and socialize with fellow CMU Portugal colleagues.
The event began with a Workshop titled “Mental Health Management for Ph.D. Students” led by Chaperone, a Training & Coaching company specializing in career support for scientists, to empower students with practical tools to enhance their emotional intelligence and overall well-being. The session covered topics such as Emotional Self-Regulation, Stress Management and Burnout Prevention.
The workshop was followed by lunch, allowing students to network and exchange experiences.
In Pittsburgh, CMU Portugal partnered with the Student Academic Success Center to offer a seminar on Presentation Skills. This seminar focused on communicating research to general audiences, creating effective presentations, and more. The event gathered 17 students, a mixture of Dual Degree PhDs, Affiliated PhDs and Visiting Students & Faculty. After the seminar, the group gathered for a holiday luncheon where they could relax and reflect on their semester in Pittsburgh.
The CMU Portugal online Info Session “How to apply for a CMU Portugal Dual Degree Ph.D. Scholarship” was held on November 19th via Zoom, gathering 92 potential candidates willing to know more about the 2024 call for scholarships.
The Info Session was moderated by Sílvia Castro, CMU Portugal Executive Director, who introduced CMU Portugal National Co-Directors, Inês Lynce and João Magalhães, to welcome the participants and offer a first insight of the Program.
João Fumega, CMU Portugal’s Education Officer, presented an overview of the Dual Degree Ph.D. Programs and scholarship funding. Next, Megan Berty, CMU Portugal’s Associate Director at CMU, focused on application guidelines and requirements, sharing insights on how to prepare and submit a successful application.
The session continued with the participation of Catarina Gamboa, a Dual Ph.D. student, who talked about her experience under the program, starting from her application process and admission, offering useful advice to prospective students.
Finally, to end the session, a 25-minute Q&A allowed all participants to clarify their doubts with the panelists.
Under this call, up to 10 Scholarships are available for the 2025/2026 academic year in selected cutting-edge areas of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), related to the scope of the CMU Portugal Program.
The Dual Degree Ph.Ds. scholarships allow students to spend three years in Portugal and two years in Pittsburgh, integrated as regular students at Carnegie Mellon University. Upon completion of the Ph.D., the student earns two diplomas, one from his selected Portuguese university and one from CMU.
The applications for the nine available Ph.D. programs are open until:
December 11th, 2024 (03:00 p.m., EST | 08:00 p.m., GMT): Computer Science (CS), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Language Technologies (LTI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotics, Societal Computing (SC) and Software Engineering (SE);
December 15th, 2024 (11:59 p.m. EST | 04:59 p.m., GMT): Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Engineering and Public Policy (EPP).
